Holyoke Tire & Auto rebuilds, changes with the times

WEST SPRINGFIELD – When it began 25 years ago, Holyoke Tire & Auto Service’s main competition was the neighborhood gas station where a mechanic was always on duty performing basic maintenance and selling tires.

“Today it’s the dealerships coming back and trying to get that service business,” said Peter F. Kearing, owner of Holyoke Tire & Auto Service.

The business began in the Kmart Plaza on Route 5 in Holyoke, but the headquarters is now on Union Street in West Springfield. The company has more than 60 employees, including about 10 who work in the retreading plant.

Since June, Holyoke Tire and Auto Service has also run its retreading plant for truck tires at the Union Street location. A fire burned Holyoke Tire and Auto out of its former plant in Chicopee back in March. It took firefighters nearly five hours to bring the blaze under control. Kearing said it was started by young people playing with fire in the alley behind the business.

“We lost a lot of storage space, but we are back up and running,” he said.

The company retreads the tractor-trailer tires under a franchise with Bandag, a national brand name in the industry. Retread tires save truckers money.

“Most never buy new tires except for the tires they use to steer,” he said. “Those scraps of rubber you see on the highway, those are from tires that were just run to death or run without air in them.”

The retail side accounts for about half Holyoke Tire & Auto Service’s revenue, he said. There are retail locations on Dwight Street in Holyoke, Dwight Street in Springfield, Memorial Avenue in West Springfield and on Boston Road in Springfield. There are sister companies in Wilbraham, Enfield, in Northern New Hampshire and Northern New York.

Dealerships and automakers make it hard for other repair shops to compete by withholding technical information, Kearing said. He’s been active in statewide efforts to force more access to that information, the “Right to Repair” bill.

The business has also changed because cars and car parts last longer now then they once lasted. Car owners routinely squeeze 300,000 to 400,000 miles out of a motor and transmission. Oil changes last 10,000 miles not 3,000 and drivers can get 150,000 miles out of a set of spark plugs.

“But the recession has been good for people in the repair business,” he said. “People hold on to an older car forever.”